The original Planet of the Apes (1968) & Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) contained far more depth by way of theological & philosophical issues. Unfortunately, the last three movies in the series went downhill in a hurry concerning those topics.
The first two installments reflect this to the viewer:
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
The creation or origin narrative was the theme not only for the apes, but also the surviving intelligent humans we encounter in Beneath the POTA. In the third movie (Escape from the POTA) one short sequence caused a radical shift for the series & the recent reboots began with the same theme. Cornelius tells the tale of how the apes rose; however, his story not only contradicted everything from the ape’s Sacred Scrolls in the first two movies, but also his own theory in POTA–that apes physically evolved from man.
The Sacred Scrolls were simple; apes were created in the divine image. In POTA Cornelius discovered evidence that man may have had an older civilization than the apes. Men, were speechless beast-men on late 40th Century Earth. They never could speak, nor have reason according to the ape’s religion. In Escape from POTA Cornelius claimed that primitive apes were pets for humans, then they advanced to chores, then slavery. Finally, one day an ape named Aldo spoke a word back to the humans that he had been told countless times… “No.” He claimed that instance was documented in The Sacred Scrolls; he must have recounted the incident from the New Revised Version of The Sacred Scrolls.
Thus, the POTA series shifted its focus from brilliant theological & philosophical issues to oppressed vs oppressor philosophy (which was a present issue, but to a much lesser degree). The series shifted from transcendent, universal issues with everlasting implications to temporal socio-political issues. Therefore, The Sacred Scrolls & the series shifted from “in the beginning God created…” to “in the beginning–rebellion.”
In the first two POTA’s it is logically inferred to the viewer that man destroyed himself & the apes mutated as a result of nuclear fallout. This can be supported via the mutated humans in Beneath the POTA; which now had superior abilities such as telepathy.
In POTA the presence of an alien challenged all the apes’ beliefs–a human astronaut named Taylor. However, it is eventually revealed that Taylor is only an alien to the time (40th Century) & not the place (Earth).
Dr Zaius was an orangutan that served as the Minister of Science & Chief Defender of the Faith. In retrospect, Zaius privately knew that an older human civilization existed prior to ape civilization. In public he upheld the full-spectrum verity of The Sacred Scrolls. He was a Neoplatonist per say; he had a logical, pragmatic faith in the wisdom, principles & morals contained in The Sacred Scrolls. Ultimately, Dr Zaius knew if the apes ceased to believe the origin story in the scrolls; the wisdom, principles & morals therein would be jettisoned as well. Thus, he promoted the noble lie.
(Note to the reader: I am not a Neoplatonist. I believe the literal creation in the book of Genesis & also believe the real event presents allegories)
Speaking of Plato, Ape civilization was organized along the lines of The Republic. The orangutans were the oligarchs, the gorilla’s were the soldier class & the chimpanzees were the masses. The chimpanzees became more enlightened through their study of science. The discoveries of the chimpanzees began to clash with boundaries set by the oligarchs.
Plato is of even more importance in POTA. The chimpanzee Cornelius discovered evidence of an older human civilization inside of a cave. For that reason Cornelius postulated the theory of evolution. Logically, his discovery did not prove that apes physically evolved from men. In The Sacred Scrolls (NRV) the apes socially evolved from men. However, in POTA, Cornelius’s theory was based on our cave’s (education) theory of evolution.
While Cornelius’s theory reflected the genesis of a new religion (or scientific theories supplanting religion), the mutated humans in Beneath the POTA displayed the end of Cornelius’s new religion. These mutants worshipped a nuclear missile (The Bomb) inside of a cave. The mutants no longer practiced a religion that included a creation or origin story, but instead an evolution story.
The mutants worshipped The Bomb because it was a nuclear war that caused The Holy Fallout, their change, their evolution to have psionic capabilities. The mutants wear false normal human faces, but when they reveal their “innermost self to the bomb” they remove their masks to reveal severe radiation sickness. The nuclear missile in their subterranean abode was the idol & represented the power of their god. In one scene, the mutants hold a liturgy that is identical to many Christian liturgies save for substituting God & the Holy Spirit with The Bomb & The Holy Fallout in identifiable scriptures.
The allusion is that the mental super-humans do not even need to eat. The “everlasting” Bomb as they call it brought peace or heaven on Earth in their theology. The mutants have a true weakness though; their powers are based on visual & audio illusions that cannot inflict real damage. If the mutants wanted someone to be murdered, they would use their mental capabilities to make others commit the act. It is inferred that they made gorilla scouts kill each other because their mutants powers have been bestowed “for peace.” By this doctrine they can disassociate themselves from any violence they cause.
That statement is in bold because that summarizes the religion of science. For instance, when some abandon faith in the Lord Jesus for faith in science, they often boast of all the good that the sciences have bestowed upon the world, but disassociate the same from biological weapons, chemical weapons or The Bomb. One could reasonably claim a figurative allusion in early POTA was abandoning the Tree of Life for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
First, I will return to the Plato theme:
Taylor: “That still does not explain the why. A planet where apes evolved from men? There’s got to be an answer.”
Dr. Zaius: “Don’t look for it Taylor…you may not like what you find.”
This exchange between Taylor & Zaius was after Cornelius (accompanied by his chimp wife Zira) displayed the evidence of an older civilization comprised of men inside of a cave to Taylor & Dr Zaius. Taylor agreed with Cornelius’s postulation, but did not find truth inside the cave–he still thought he was on another planet. After Taylor rode off in search of answers further out in the forbidden zone, Zaius ordered the gorilla’s to seal the cave with explosives despite Cornelius’s protests. Dr. Zaius’s mode was not to secure power for the oligarchs (orangutans); his mode was to preserve his civilization.
The contents inside the cave were not going to be the basis for the apes’ religion or education. Zaius knew scientific theories that resulted from that evidence conflicted with the foundation of his civilization. He also finally admitted that he knew an older civilization of intelligent men had existed, but they had destroyed themselves via their own science. That theme reminds me of a famous quote by General Omar Bradley:
“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
The irony of Taylor & Zaius’s exchange was that Zaius knew Taylor would not find truth inside of the cave. The orangutan knew he would find it outside of the cave & his foreboding warning to Taylor mirrored:
Ecclesiastes 1:18 “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
Dr Zaius was entrenched in a battle to keep the apes from suffering the same self-destructive fate that men suffered–which reflects:
Ecclesiastes 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Early in POTA the impression is that the conflict is the alleged truth of science versus the oppressive force of religion. Midway through the film, Taylor acts as an enlightened alien guide to help Cornelius develop his theories & fight for what he believes to be the truth. The end of POTA reflects the opposite. Taylor finds the truth he was looking for on a beach further in the forbidden zone–the half-buried, mangled Statue of Liberty. He realizes he was on Earth all along, but in the future & man had finally went through with his nuclear war.
That is another grand irony in more ways than one. Again, Taylor, the enlightened alien was in fact helping to put Cornelius (and the ape civilization as a whole) on the same road that the leads to the same end; the same end Taylor just encountered. Inside the cave, based off the evidence, Taylor boasted to Dr Zaius that this older civilization of men on the planet were superior to Zaius’s civilization because of science & technology.
In the final conversation between Zaius & Taylor (from which I already provided the final exchange), Zaius admits to Taylor that he knew of the older civilization of men. Zaius said of men:
“His wisdom must have walked hand and hand with his lunacy.”
This is outside of the cave & Zauis then tells Taylor the truth:
“The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.”
Taylor did not fully comprehend Zaius’s statement. It did not concern a similar species on a different planet–it was Taylor’s breed. The beastmen that remained were all that remained of Taylor’s people. Zaius rejected that Taylor was an alien from the beginning. He did not know Taylor time-travelled; he believed Taylor was a leftover from the destroyed civilization of intelligent men & was correct.
Zaius had a concern equal to Cornelius’s corrupt theories. He thought Taylor was part of an intelligent tribe of humans that remained. If that was the case, Zaius knew they had or would soon have the technology to destroy ape civilization. For this reason, the Apes began sending out Gorilla scouts in Beneath the POTA. They search for Taylor’s theoretical tribe. They find the mutated super-humans, who already had imprisoned Taylor & Brent (an astronaut who was sent out to find Taylor & encountered the same timespace rift).
Both Taylor & Brent are essentially ghosts of a long dead civilization. They cannot assimilate into the ape civilization, the superhuman civilization nor the beastmen herds. Early in POTA, after the crash of their shuttle & a long march; Taylor & the two other astronauts encounter the beastmen (concerning the astronauts with Taylor: one died before the crash, one died in the ape hunt, one was lobotomized by the apes). The beastmen are foraging fruits, vegetables & it initially looks like the Garden of Eden. Taylor believes that if the beastmen are the best that the planet has to offer, due to the superior knowledge he & his comrades, they’d be running the planet in 6 months. Taylor initially plays the role of the serpent:
Genesis 3:5 “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
It is a short lived revel because the beastmen were actually foraging amongst the apes’ crops. Even as the movie progresses, Taylor plays the role of the serpent among the apes. He is the enlightened alien to Cornelius & Zira, but the devil IAW with ape civilization. This is yet another aspect that is lost when the POTA series fully transitioned into oppressed vs oppressor philosophy.
Extra-Terrestrials. This movie reflects the two camps that reside in our world. One group would regard ET’s as the enlightened aliens that are here to help man progress towards a technologically & morally superior civilization. The other camp, my camp, knows that the ET’s are either here because they destroyed their own civilization (via war or exhausted their resources) or they were cast out of their own civilization:
Revelation 12:7 “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Beneath the POTA is the 2nd movie; however, it is the chronological end of POTA & the world. Taylor identifies the nuclear missile that the mutants worship as the alpha & omega bomb or the doomsday bomb. This particular bomb apparently existed since Taylor’s time in the 20th Century & was build to be the ultimate war deterrent. That fact helps explain the mutants peace doctrine–The Bomb, their god, a manmade idol, was built to bring peace on Earth. It was capable of melting the Earth’s atmosphere according to Taylor.
The end of Beneath the POTA is awful for the viewer; the same end is spectacular on theological & philosophical basis. The apes overcome the mutants’ defensive illusions, invade the subterranean city & kill all the mutants who have yet to commit suicide. The apes (Zauis included) enter the sanctuary of the Bomb & pull down the golden idol (The Bomb). It begins leaking nauseas gas. The gorilla commander is about to push the red button thinking he can stop the gas leak. Brent & Taylor had been hiding in the sanctuary; they break concealment & begin shooting to stop the detonation. At the tail end of melee, a mortally wounded Taylor states that it is doomsday & asks Dr Zaius to help him (the inference is that if he can get Zaius to help him with his wound, then he can disarm the bomb). Zaius refuses. Taylor collapses, but reaches his arm out & pulls down red button.
A building flash intensifies on the screen. An emotionless third party narrator says:
“In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead.”
The screen goes black & the credits roll in silence.
Consider origin, the creation theme of POTA. The theological & philosophical message at the end of Beneath the POTA was not nihilism or everything is worthless. The message is that if a world abandons its creation narrative, then its existence & death are meaningless.
Therefore POTA & Beneath POTA are often misunderstood as the battle for science to overcome religious oppression, or rightly understood to a lesser degree concerning the dangers of modern science or technology.
The prime message of the two movies is: there are ultimately, only two choices…creationism or nihilism.
Thus, if one is absolutely opposed to creationism & believes there must be another answer, I say:
Dr. Zaius: “Don’t look for it Taylor…you may not like what you find.”
THE EXILE OBSERVER 